The invention relates to an apparatus for retaining and positioning pharmaceutical products in the form of tablets, hard gelatin capsules or the like in a packaging installation.
Such an apparatus is known from the German patent publication DE 10 2008 013 403 A1 as a component of a capsule filling machine and closing machine. To this end, the known apparatus comprises two receiving elements which interact with one another for, for example, respectively five hard gelatin capsules. Said receiving elements serve to initially separate the capsule upper parts from the capsule lower parts, subsequently to meter the filling material in powder form into the capsule lower parts that are open at the top and finally to again bring the receiving elements for the capsule upper parts in alignment with the receiving elements for the capsule lower parts in order to close the hard gelatin capsules. The receiving elements for the capsule lower parts of the apparatus have respectively a holder in the form of a through-hole so that the capsule lower parts are, for example, clampingly positioned in the holders. The capsule lower parts are discharged from the holders by means of discharge rams which are moved into the through-holes from below and enter into operative connection with the capsule lower parts and which discharge the capsule lower parts or the hard gelatin capsules from the holders of the receiving elements when the discharge rams move upwards. The pharmaceutical products can only be clampingly positioned in the holders of the apparatus without damage thereto if said products, as is the case with hard gelatin capsules, have a certain elasticity; thus enabling a clamping closure to be achieved in the holders. A positioning or retaining of pharmaceutical products in a clamping manner, which products are not elastically configured and therefore can be fixed by clamps, is however not possible with the known apparatus. A typical application of such an apparatus relates to the labeling of tablets. To this end, the tablets have to be fixed in a certain position or location during the labeling process in order to perform the labeling with a laser or something similar.